Why do people say things like “Oh well Halloween was better in the 90s” or something like “Halloween sucks these days”?

Other than nostalgia for an era bygone, I think there are several reasons why. Normally on Halloween, I like writing something that’s uplifting or fun like a Top 10 Horror Movies Ever or What Does Halloween Mean To You, article. However, for 2025, I’m going to bring it down a bit, while also trying to raise the holiday back up. I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s. I don’t claim to say that my era of Halloween as a kid was any better than yours. We still got to trick or treat up until I was a senior in high school. I’ll start there, trick or treat until you’re 102, who cares.

But back then, there were tons of kids trick or treating, people were out partying, and it just seemed like the holiday was much more full. 2020 might have had something to do with it, creating a holiday that people couldn’t really gather for because of COVID-19, but the issues I fear go back further than that. The first thing that’s making Halloween feel like it’s a little lesser is that kids aren’t trick-or-treating, or at least they’re not trick-or-treating in the same way as before. Parents these days are too scared to let their kids go out and get candy from random houses, so they’re driving them around in minivans and supervising every little thing. That’s directly against how we all used to do it.

The other thing is that our popular culture used to kick into OVERDRIVE for the holiday. We had special episodes of TV shows, TV specials, commercials, toys, movies, books, and everything in between. How many shows are doing dedicated Halloween episodes these days? It’s one of the biggest crimes of the era that streaming has taken over, and taken away our Halloween episodes. Why make a Halloween episode when you’re just watching a show immediately in August? The other thing being that we only get 8 episodes a season instead of 20+.

The Internet And The Times Are-A-Changing

Maybe I’m just a 31-year-old old man screaming at a cloud here, but it feels like the biggest culprit for the holiday feeling a bit lesser is the internet. Between most of us spending all of our time on varying apps and the lack of a barrage of Halloween popular culture, the kids these days don’t know how good it used to be. Slapping on a Halloween costume from the most popular movie of the time (I, and every other kid in 1999 was Anakin Skywalker from The Phantom Menace) and going out with your friends, family, and whoever else to run around was the peak.

These days, towns have designated certain streets to be the Halloween epicenter instead of just going around whatever neighborhood. That takes away from the experience, one because when you run out of houses to go to, kids get less candy, and two, while it does make ONE street feel like its actually popping off, all the other ones are ghost towns. I don’t know what kids these days do on Halloween, maybe they’re still going around and causing trouble like we used to.

However, the single biggest thing I can say is that people have somehow pushed this idea that interacting and indulging on the holiday of Halloween is somehow a childish thing. If you go trick-or-treating as an adult, you get strange looks or outright denial for candy. People think that you have to act a certain way on the one holiday that you get to act like SOMEONE ELSE.

So if anyone shows up on my doorstep asking for candy whether they’re 2-200, they’re getting some candy.

I do think that there’s a lot to love about Halloween these days. I wrote 45 articles all about the holiday for Fright-A-Thon. But there’s certainly some societal work that needs to be done to bring the holiday back to its full glory.

What do you think? Do you think Halloween is better than ever?

For more on Halloween, make sure to check out the full Fright-A-Thon lineup.

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